Friday Stories, Scarf Memories, And Outrage

A stranger unknots a scarf and hands it over, and that small act of generosity becomes our compass for a week that’s anything but simple. We start with intention and assumption—how a gift can feel both disarming and profound—then follow that thread through a media controversy around the DC pipe bomber suspect, where timing, accuracy, and edited clips collide. If trust is built one detail at a time, what happens when a single, confident detail is wrong?

From there, we face a harder scene: a mob storms a Los Angeles synagogue, masked faces and shouted threats turning “rhetoric” into fear. We talk plainly about free speech, intimidation, and the responsibility to protect houses of worship without slipping into partisan reflexes. Permits, enforcement, and consistent standards matter, and so does language that doesn’t sand down harm. Safety isn’t a talking point; it’s a promise communities feel or don’t every time they open a door.

Then we pivot to the sky, where a JetBlue flight’s sudden drop brings a rare claim to the foreground: could cosmic rays flip a bit in an aircraft’s systems? We unpack soft-error upsets, avionics redundancy, and why unlikely causes deserve scrutiny without becoming easy headlines. It’s a reminder that science, like journalism, demands evidence, nuance, and updates when new facts arrive.

Threaded through all of it is a call for discernment: slow down before you share, ask what was known and when, and hold space for complexity. We close on something human—a favorite Christmas song—because culture and memory knit us back together when the world feels sharp. If you’re here for clear thinking, empathy, and a few good questions, you’re in the right place.

If the conversation moves you, follow the show, share this episode with a friend, and leave a quick review with your favorite holiday song. Your notes shape what we explore next.

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Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 A Scarf And A Cultural Question
• 2:34 Media Claims And The DC Pipe Bomber
• 5:49 Misreporting, Race, And “Rhetoric”
• 8:24 Synagogue Mob And Public Safety
• 11:34 Paid Protesters And Accountability
• 13:34 Cosmic Rays And A Midair Plunge

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:30

Good morning, my little love bunnies. It is Friday. Can you believe we made it through this week? And it's gone by super fast. I I can't believe it's Friday. It's crazy. Well, um, what do I have for you this morning? Uh, first I want to share this story with you. It popped in my head because I wore this scarf this morning. This scarf that I got, I did not buy. It was given to me. And I need your your opinion on this. A long time ago, several years ago, when I worked for Estee Lauder, I worked directly for that company, but I represented the Joe Malone London line. Now, this has nothing to do with the scarf, but I'm this is where I used to work. So I had a lot of people come in that I would see in retail. This one lady came in, she's of Asian dis descent. I don't know which part of Asia, maybe Japan, I'm not sure. I don't know, but I know she was Asian. And I she had this beautiful scarf on, and I commented on it. I said, Oh, your scarf is just absolutely beautiful. She took it off her neck and gave it to me. Now I tried not to take it, y'all. I tried not to take it, but she insisted that I took it, that I take it. I'm like, where she just took she took it off her neck and gave it to me right then and there. Now I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. I'm like, what the heck? I tried not to take it. So I don't know. Is that their culture thing? I don't know. Maybe she's maybe I don't know. Let's move on to the stories. Tell me your thoughts on that. But every time I put that scarf on, I think of her. Of course I do. And it's a beautiful scarf. I love it. I've had it for years now. Okay, we need to move on to the stories. I posted three things here. Um the first one up. The they well, they've got the pipe bomber, and his name is Brian Cole Jr. and he's a black man. I don't know. Let's see. Benny Johnson posted this, so take that for what it's worth. A young black guy, radical anti-Trump activist, sued Trump and ICE and DHS. I don't know if that's true or not. Extreme racial justice advocate, works at his family bail bonds company that frees criminal aliens from ICE custody. I don't know if any of this is true. Who knows? Um, so yeah, but Jake Tappert, let's see, CNN's Jake Tappert, skewered for calling black DC pipe bomber suspect Brian Cole Jr. a white man on air. Now, to me personally, his race does not matter to me. I don't care if he's black, white, green, purple. I don't care. He's if he's the guy, he needs to be prosecuted. But for Jack Tapper to say it was a white supremacist or a white guy is ridiculous. Now, heads up, you're gonna see a lot of videos today of him, probably Jack Tapper. Now, people have taken the liberty of posting, of putting the they they record the video, right, of Jake Tapper. When the original video does not have the picture of the pipe bomber when he first reported this. People have taken that video and put Brian Cole Jr.'s picture on it, so just be aware of that when you are scrolling through social media today. I don't know if they knew the race at the time that he uh reported this, and if they didn't know the race, he shouldn't have said anything about it. Okay, all right, moving on. First of all, let's go see what the New York Post. Let's see if we have some of the comments on here. Okay, here we go over to the New York Post story about it. CNN's Jake Tapper skewer for calling black DC pipe bomber suspect Brian Cole Jr. as a white man on air. CNN anchor Jake Tapper was ripped by critics Thursday after he wrongly referred to the accused DC pipe bomber Brian Cole Jr. as a white man. Tapper made the cringeworthy gaff while discussing the arrest of Cole, who was black, during his opening segment on the lead. Now, at this time, I don't know if they knew the race up, but even if they didn't, he shouldn't have said anything. His white man comment came at 5 01 PM around the time CNN was the first outlet to publish a photo of Cole's face that originated from the suspect's mother Instagram account. So I'm wrong. Apparently he they did know, apparently. I don't know. Again, though, they've superimposed the Cole's Junior picture onto this video. Just keep that in mind. They really did. I don't think it was on there uh on the original video. Cole's father is also black and once enlisted the services of Ben Crump, an attorney best known for his racial discrimination cases. Mm-hmm. Sounds like he was radicalized by daddy. Viewers were stunned by Tapper's misrepresentation of the alleged pipe bomber. You can't make this stuff up, conservative pundit Benny Johnson wrote on X. Jack is sharp as a tack. Nothing gets past him, dude's elite. Another dead panned. It's impossible that he does not know what he oh shoot. What it's the it's impossible that he does not know what he is doing, one user speculated. Conservator conservative influencer Nick Sorter accused CNN of pushing anti-Trump rhetoric. We need to talk about this word rhetoric in a minute. This word rhetoric. I hear it a lot. We need to talk about that here in a minute, if I can remember. But others were more understanding. Not a fan of Jake, but the guy's name is Brian. That may be a top three white names, so understandable mistake, I guess. Clearly he never looked at the graphics, probably just read a script. Cole was arrested at his okay, at his home, blah blah blah. We're gonna hear more about him today, I am sure of it. Alright, we need to move on to Alright, here we have the next story, which is horrifying video shows anti-Semitic protester mob storm LA synagogue, spew hateful threats at Jewish bystanders. Bystanders. Now I've seen clips here and there on social media about this type of thing happening, and you take it for what it's worth. You know, you never know anymore if it's AI or if it's old videos or of somewhere else, and it's they're saying it's here in America. Who knows? I don't know. But here is this from the New York Post. A group of anti-Semitic protesters spewed hateful rhetoric and threats of brutal violence to attendees at an event held at historic Midwilshire synagogue in Los Angeles. And in you, I I don't know if you just heard this, but the word rhetoric is used a lot lately. Rhetoric rhetoric is the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques. Now that makes it sound all fancy and fine. Rhetoric is not a word that I would use to describe these kind of people. Um I would like to use a different word. I don't know what word would work here, but it's more than rhetoric, okay? This is hateful, hateful things. Now, I know we have free speech, but you can't just bust up in a synagogue and start doing this kind of stuff. Dramatic video posted on X shows the violent display as the protester chanted Free Palestine outside the Wilshire Boulevard Temple Wednesday. The protesters kept their faces covered, of course, while they shouted expletives as attendees attempted to get by without violence. At one point, the protesters also entered the synagogue and allegedly damaged property inside. So this is this is crazy. Now, did these people have permits to be protesting outside? I don't know. Do they just show up? Are these these are obviously paid protesters? Why are why is this happening in freaking America? I thought we I thought we were past this. Ray Wu Corpus, 24, was arrested for vandalism in connection to the protest. Property records indicate Corpus lives in a$1 million home in Irvine, California. Hello. Why does he need to be paid? The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles called the protest hate disguised as dissent. Mayor Bass, who has been criticized for not doing enough to protect houses of worship in the city, was quick to release a statement condemning the attacks. Bass deployed officers, blah, blah, blah. I just why? I can't believe this is even happening here in America. This is outrageous. How come there is not more outrage of this? I don't understand what is happening with these so-called protesters in air quotes. Are they really? I mean, why? These are just hateful people. I thought we were a melting pot. We all could get along and live together. Apparently not. These people are not regular citizens of America. They're just not. I think, and I maybe comedic almost. I want your opinion on this. Okay, you remember the plane that plunged a thousand feet? There was a new New Jersey plane bound uh plane that suddenly plunged a thousand feet. Well, it was likely hit by cosmic rays from a whole other galaxy. Y'all, I'm not making this up. This is what the New York Post is reporting. A New Jersey bound airplane that suddenly plunged a thousand feet in the air. You remember this? This happened back in October, and they interviewed some people on it. It was all over the national news. They're saying that it was slightly struck, and they are space experts, by the way. I would like to know who these space experts are. Maybe we'll get to it later in the article. Was slightly struck by cosmic rays from a star that exploded in another galaxy. Y'all, wow. The Jet Blue Airbus A320 flight was hit by a stream of high-energy particles from a distant supernova blast that traveled millions of years, according to Clive Dyer, a space and radiation expert from the University of Surrey, who spoke to space.com. University of Surrey, that sounds like it's over in Europe somewhere. So of course. Cosmic rays can interact with modern electric microelectronics and change the state of a circuit, Dyer told the outlet. They can cause a simple but flip. I'm sorry. They can cause a simple bit flip, like a zero to one or one to zero. I don't even know what that means. They can mess up information and make things go wrong, but they can cause hardware failures too, when they induce a current in an electric device and burn it out. The flight was headed from Cancun to Newark on October 30th when it fell. Okay, we got that. Pilots regained control and made an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida. Airbus officials blamed the glitch this week on intense solar radiation from the sun interfering with the 20-year-old plane's navigation computer. Do you believe this? Do you all believe this? But Dyer, who has studied effects of solar radiation on aircraft electronics for decades, said the radiation levels were not strong enough to impact the flight, and noted it was not likely due to supernova. I'm sorry, that it was likely due to a supernova. Cosmic rays are created when massive stars explode in supernovas at the end of their lives, hurling protons across the universe at the speed of light. Wow, as the particles fly towards Earth, they may hit the they may hit an electronic circuit inside an aircraft sensor on board. Don't we have an atmosphere? Wouldn't that have if it came through the atmosphere, wouldn't it have gone all the way down to Earth somewhere? I'm confused by this. I'm not a I'm not a scientist though, so who knows? What are your thoughts on that? Is it cuckoo? I think it's cuckoo. Alright, we need a question of the day. Quickly, what's your favorites? I know I've done this last year. I know I have. What's your favorite Christmas song? Mine is Oh Holy Night, but it's the version by Josh Grobin. Is that his name? Josh Grobin, young guy? I think it is. Maybe. Wait a minute. I gotta hold on. Yes, Josh Grobin's G R O B A N version of Oh Holy Night. Oh, chills and tears every time. Okay, gotta go. Thanks for listening. Bye.